No part of earth is totally untouched by man. In this century, air pollution, nuclear fallout and sonic booms have penetrated to the most remote corners of the globe. It can be argued that every ecosystem on earth has been altered by human activity, and that there is no true wilderness left anywhere. However, there are clearly places on the planet which are for the most part still primeval, where the forces of nature are dominant, where humans are visitors who do not remain.

The world's surviving wilderness areas, disappearing at a rapid rate, are now the focus of an international struggle. Civilization, with its growing population and rising material demands, is moving relentlessly to develop the earth's remaining natural areas for energy, mineral, timber and other resources. At the same time, advocates of wilderness preservation are organizing a worldwide campaign to save what is left of these areas before they are gone forever.

Unlike other environmental issues—such as automobile emissions or water pollution, which affect people directly—wilderness preservation is seen by some as an elitist or esoteric concept. Relatively few people ever visit a wilderness in their lives, and some see little value in setting aside any wilderness for all time. They cannot identify with faraway places on society's frontiers which they feel have little to do with them. Others are genuinely concerned that civilization will need all the resources it can get in the coming years, and “locking up” wilderness will foreclose the options of development.